This short story has a rating of T.
It may not be appropriate for very young readers.
Open Office 2.0 has been used for the present edition.

Disclaimer – All things BSSM are the property of Takeuchi Naoko and the corporations that have used her ideas to build a franchise that is as lively in the present as it must have been in the early 1990s. The story itself is the property of the Samuraiter and may not be posted on any web site but his private web page and FFN without his permission. This fanfic, a labor of love, has not been posted for gain or profit in any way, shape, or form. Special thanks to Corvus for originally suggesting the idea behind it.

Note – The events of Jade Necklace are a “What if?” presenting a different / non-canon version of what might have happened during and after Episode 12 of BSSM. Fans of King Jadeite and Youma Tetis might be surprised.

I Abibde / The Samuraiter Presents
A Sankakukei Studio Production
Of A Jadeite / Tetis Fan Club Fanfic
Formatted For FFN

Sailor Moon:
Jade Necklace

I

To defeat one of the Sailor Senshi – particularly Sailor Mercury, given her lack of formal training in water-based magic – in direct combat might have been a possibility, but to face all three soldiers of the Moon Kingdom as a single unit was to invite death. It was becoming clear that retreat was the best course of action, but the Queen of the Dark Kingdom did not accept retreat from her Youma, no matter how long they had served in her armies. That did not leave many options for the Youma who had been named Tetis.

Mercury had called up a thick fog to cut off any line of sight, and Mars had used her flame to negate the advantage of exploiting the water below her as a weapon. Moon already had her tiara at the ready, and one touch from that was sufficient to discorporate almost any Youma. To call for help from King Jadeite might have sufficed, but Tetis, being a favorite of Queen Beryl, did not have it in her heart to ask for help from any retainer, no matter who he was. She had one card in her hand that she had yet to play.

I will not owe a debt to him, she said to herself, not when the responsibility for this disgrace is mine and mine alone. Resolve crystallized in her mind as Sailor Moon called out to her, hurling the tiara and expecting it to hit at full force. Tetis felt the white magic of the weapon as if it was a stiletto that might pierce her body from all directions simultaneously, and she acted quickly, casting a spell – from memory, from a full millennium of practice – to condense the moisture in the air around her and spin illusion from it, shaping a reflection of herself in the water-based double that she had created.

For one second, Tetis seemed to occupy two places at the same time, and, in that instant, the tiara passed through the double, turning it to steam in a burst of white light. She had guessed that the tiara was incapable of correcting itself in mid-flight, and she had been correct, though it had been very close. She turned the thick fog to her advantage by vanishing from sight, leaving the Sailor Senshi to surmise that she had been destroyed.

In the safety of the ocean, she had a respite from the fight, and she used it to assess her injuries. Double or no double, the nearness of the tiara had seared her body, and she had become very weak, using her left hand to cling to the hull of the ship over her head, where a very angry Jadeite was most likely taking his turn at engaging the Sailor Senshi, while she held her right hand over her heart to feel for a strong, steady beat. To her relief, it was present, and her good fortune, such as it was, had not been exhausted.

Tetis had been lectured, by Youma in the service of Jadeite, on the strength of Sailor Moon, but she had not believed the rumors until she had seen the enemy for herself. Though she had been very young, she had witnessed the invasion of the Moon Kingdom, and none of the Sailor Senshi of the past had been strong enough to kill a Youma in a single strike. Then again, during the Silver Millennium, there had been no Sailor Moon. Why she had appeared at a point in time at which no Sailor Senshi were supposed to exist was a mystery, but her lethality was no mystery to any of the Youma.

Jadeite, she said by way of telepathy, if you can hear me, answer. At first, she did not think that her signal had sufficient force behind it to reach him, but, after a brief pause, she received a weak impression, wordless, but enough to confirm that he was all right and withdrawing from his confrontation with the Sailor Senshi at the behest of Queen Beryl. The fact that the Queen had not also contacted her made her feel slightly queasy. Had her all-powerful mistress decided to forsake her as another casualty?

I ... do not have the power to follow you from here, she relayed to the transient King, uncertain as to whether or not she wished to tell him to return to the Dark Kingdom without her. As it was, it took almost all of her strength to send her thoughts to him. For a little while, there was silence, but, instead of receiving a reply, she received Jadeite in person as he materialized in front of her, a sphere of blackness protecting him from the water. To her relief, he had escaped from the Sailor Senshi uninjured, though the dark look on his face suggested that he had not been pleased by the outcome of the fight.

Let go of the hull, he commanded, reaching through the boundary of the sphere with both white-gloved hands as she obeyed and drifted towards him, pulled to his grasp by the current. As soon as his hands covered hers, it felt as though her blood was renewed, and strength returned to her body as he shared a little of his life force with her. His face did not change, and he had only a grunt for her as he teleported both of them back inside the ship.

The hold, once concealed by the illusion that she and Jadeite had both shaped to cover the entire ship, had been restored to its original form as soon as the fight had concluded, and the pounding of the engine, false as it was, had been replaced by a grave-like silence, save for footsteps and confused, muffled voices overhead. The steel walls, covered by rust and filth, produced echoes of those noises, and Jadeite squinted at his surroundings, listening to everything, leaving nothing to chance.

“The Queen did not contact you,” he said matter-of-factly, not looking at her, “and I want to know why.” As if to drive home the point, he gestured at the nearest hatch in front of him, closing it – and sealing it shut – telekinetically to prevent any intrusions. He then turned to face her, his hands sparking with the faux electricity that indicated the presence of his black magic. It was not calculated to intimidate her, for he was aware that she enjoyed the favor of the Queen, but it placed a certain emphasis on his demand.

She answered, meeting his blue-eyed stare evenly, “I was almost killed, Jadeite. She might think that I am dead.” Of all the Youma in the Dark Kingdom, only she had sufficient rank to address him without his title, and, as if to emphasize her importance to the throne, she asked, softly, “What will you tell her if she asks about me, then? You know what will happen if you tell her that Sailor Moon –” She had no breath with which to speak, and she immediately looked to him, suspecting him of stealing it from her.

As she collapsed, trying to hold herself up with one hand on the slick, reddish wall next to her, he strode forward, and she felt his telepathy piercing her mind at full strength, searching for a secret as he picked her up, banishing his black magic. His presence in her mind was more curious than it was suspicious, and she clenched her face, tolerating it as he pored through recent events in her memory. He stopped upon seeing what she had done to save herself from death, and that prompted him to furrow his brow.

“I can see why Queen Beryl said nothing,” he observed, with a note of finality, “considering that she can no longer sense your presence. You have been ... poisoned.” His lips curled as he said the word, but he did not set her down. Instead, he provided another infusion of his life force in order to keep her fully conscious and aware to weigh the implications of what he had said. It was a situation that had not arisen in the Dark Kingdom for ages.

The sealing of the Dark Kingdom by Queen Serenity had been achieved through the use of white magic in its purest form, and many Youma who had been too close to the explosion – and too weak to shield themselves from its full effect – had been either disintegrated on the spot ... or poisoned, though 'purified' might have been a superior word. Tetis had seen several of those unfortunates. Most of them, having been released from the direct control of Queen Beryl, had been executed on the spot as a danger to the monarch. A few, though, had either remembered their former lives ... or become human.

“I am loyal to Her Majesty,” Tetis said, bringing her face close to his, “and I am one of her Youma. Look at me. You see it to be true.” It was. Her skin retained its light blue color, and her dark red eyes continued to be pupilless and blood-like, set into a mouthless face. Nonetheless, she realized that it was only her status that prevented Jadeite from killing her instantly, though she refused to plead for her life. A loyal Youma did not plead for anything, no matter what was at stake. One always accepted what one was given.

The ship lurched into motion with a loud creak, and Jadeite said, glancing up at the ceiling over his head, “The police must be towing this hulk. You and I will hide here until we can safely make landfall.” Telepathically, he added, You will be a danger to the Queen if I return you to her as you are. As to what he was going to do once they made landfall, he said nothing, preferring to stand where he was, keeping his thoughts to himself as the ship rocked back and forth. Tetis could not imagine the great Jadeite being indecisive about anything, though it certainly seemed that way to her.

She thought, looping one arm around his neck to steady herself, The Jadeite who led this incursion into the Earth Realm would have killed me without a second thought. What has happened to you? Has this succession of defeats dulled your edge? Have you spent too much time in this unholy place? She considered sharing those thoughts with him in order to have answers from the source, but it was only by his temporary mercy that she was still alive at all, and she did not wish to try what little patience he had.

Think what you will of me, this is no act of submission on my part, she fumed, no matter how it might look. His face was impassive, though he seemed slightly ... older, for lack of a better word. Granted, his appearance had not changed in the slightest during his millennium of exile, but he had acquired a tired, haunted cast to his features, and he had begun to act irrationally, taking larger and larger risks in his plans to gather up life force for the sake of his Queen. There had been a time when he would never have listened to her, yet he had accepted her plan as if it had been his own.

Am I the one who has been poisoned, Jadeite, or do you seek to fool yourself by assigning blame? The notion lingered in her mind as the ship continued its sluggish voyage towards land and her partner in crime stared at nothing with a face most impassive, as lost in himself as she had ever seen him.

End
To Be Continued